Tina Marlow tells a story Sunday morning at Temple Sinai of a makeshift spoon menorah made by concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust. (ERIC JENKS/photos@saratogian.com)

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Children proudly explained the unique menorahs they had made from plastic coat hangers, Legos, Play-Doh, pipes, hammers and chocolate wrappers to commemorate this year's festival of lights.

They gathered Sunday afternoon at Temple Sinai to present their homemade menorahs, sing songs, play with dreidels, listen to stories, dance and learn more about the tradition of Hanukkah.

The festival of lights began Saturday night, and the second day of the eight-day celebration commenced at sunset Sunday.

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The lighting of the menorah, called the hanukiya in Hebrew, is the focal point of the Hanukkah tradition. Rabbis Jonathan Rubenstein and Linda Motzkin, who have served Temple Sinai for 25 years, asked the children to build menorahs out of found or recycled objects or things found in nature.

From the day's events, Motzkin said she hoped the children would learn the importance of kindling light during times of great darkness and about religious freedom and miracles.

Tina Marlow, who co-chairs the Education Committee at the temple, told the children a story about a group of courageous souls trapped in a German concentration camp the winter before World War II and the Holocaust ended. They were determined to gather nine spoons to make a menorah for Hanukkah, and they did. They found spoons in the snow and buried in garbage and borrowed them from gracious prisoners.

The menorah made from spoons was brought to the United States after the war ended and a story was written about it.

When she was finished telling the story, Marlow presented a menorah her son-in-law had made from nine spoons, and the sight of it delighted the children.

"It's made of actual spoons," one screamed happily.

The traditional Hanukkah toy, the dreidel, once served a very serious purpose, the children gathered Sunday also learned. Jews had to study the Torah in secret after it was forbidden by the Syrians. They kept the spinning tops on their person so that if they were found studying, they could pretend to be playing.

Hanukkah commemorates the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to impose its culture on Jews and adorn the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem with statues of Greek gods. The holiday lasts eight days because, according to tradition, when the Jews rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem, a single vial of oil, enough for one day, burned miraculously for eight days.

Rabbi Motzkin endeavored to describe miracles Sunday, saying they are different from magic and that part of a miracle is realizing what needs to be done and immediately doing it, even if it means taking a risk. She said a miracle is finding something right when you need it the most.

"Miracles happen today, just as much as they happened long ago," she said.